João Canijo latest movie adapts a Greek tragedy “Ifigénia en Aulis” to a provincial Portuguese family that has to deal with the Russian Mafia after a deal went wrong. In a place where everything is bought and sold even the youngest daughter may have to be offered for prostitution to make up for a deal that went terribly wrong. “Noite Escura” deals with the emotions of a small family that runs a provincial whorehouse, having to sell their youngest in order to survive.
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Industrial tycoon Stéphane Margelle is an incorrigible lady’s man. Caught by his wife Sophie in company of a charming young lady, Julie, he rushes to introduce the young woman as his daughter from a previous marriage. Sophie is not taken in but nonetheless decides to play him at his own game. And Stéphane gets trapped in his web of lies.
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Mirabel wins a $5,000 lottery which will enable her to live like a queen in New York. There she meets Sandro, a bellboy who is really a prince, so she does get to be a queen after all.
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The city suffers and succumbs unarmed, but an ex secret agent succeeds in winning the struggle against the gangsterism. Intrigue and violence grip a society victim of the crime.
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The stenographer Alice Sycamore is in love with her boss Tony Kirby, who is the vice-president of the powerful company owned by his greedy father Anthony P. Kirby. Kirby Sr. is dealing a monopoly in the trade of weapons, and needs to buy one last house in a twelve block area owned by Alice’s grandparent Martin Vanderhof. However, Martin is the patriarch of an anarchic and eccentric family where the members do not care for money but for having fun and making friends. When Tony proposes Alice, she states that it would be mandatory to introduce her simple and lunatic family to the snobbish Kirbys, and Tone decides to visit Alice with his parents one day before the scheduled. There is an inevitable clash of classes and lifestyles, the Kirbys spurn the Sycamores and Alice breaks with Tony, changing the lives of the Kirby family.
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Arnold Boult is determined to make his son a success at all costs. He commits arson, causes two suicides, and bribes people. His wife, unable to leave him, becomes alcoholic and dies. His son is killed. After doing time in prison he searches for his illegitimate grandson.
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Maurice (Michel Piccoli) is a composer, and a longtime member of the resistance. By chance, he shares a house with his teenager granddaughter. Claire, at 17, is eager to experience all sorts of things and the sooner the better, and rebels against anyone who wants to stop him. Between the swimming and the first encounters with the boys, she spends her life, hosted by his grandfather after being orphaned. But this interaction is difficult: both avoid themselves in their large house, escaping through the windows if necessary, living in mutual incomprehension. Yet, they have something in common: both are insurgents in their own way.
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A bookie uses a phony real estate business as a front for his betting parlor. To further keep up the sham, he hires dim-witted Ellen Grant as his secretary figuring she won’t suspect any criminal goings-on. When Ellen learns of some friends who are about to lose their homes, she unwittingly drafts her boss into developing a new low-cost housing development.
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Susan Miller works behind the girdle counter in a department store and dreams about the beautiful clothes and glamour she can never hope to have. Enter May Worthington and Warren, a pair of con artists who pose as the mother and uncle of a pretty girl in order to separate millionaires from their money. They convince Susan she has an opportunity to fulfill all her dreams, and the trio heads for Palm Beach. Susan meets John Wheeler who says he is shopping for a sailboat. Believing that he is a millionaire, Warren and May sell him a boat that doesn’t belong to them, and make off with his $15,000 life savings. Looking for greener pastures, they work themselves into the family of wealthy Tod Fenwick, who falls for Sue, posing as “Linda Worthington”. But John shows up as a guest of Fenwick and he tells “Linda”, not knowing she was part of the scam, that he has a detective after the fake captain that sold him the boat. John admits that he is not a millionaire but only a $65-a-week clerk.
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The line between fantasy and reality is once more blurred in this Belgian/French drama about a professor of literature who develops an obsession with a beautiful woman he meets (or imagines meeting) in the woods. He has an affair with this woman, but before he can run off with her, his daughter, who is an object of his incestuous desire (as several daydream sequences make clear), kills the stranger. Perhaps, though, his daughter only kills his daydreams when she gets married.
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Sandra Demarest arrives at the Caldwell estate, and announces to Mark Caldwell that she was secretly married to his nephew James, who recently died. Mark does not believe her, but allows her to remain at the manor while a search is made for a missing will that would prove her claim. Sandra befriends James’ sister, Julie, who tells of strange noises and agonized screams from the laboratory wing of the estate. Between verbal duels with Mark, Sandra secretly investigates the lab and learns that ominous things really are happening.
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In a small town on the countryside, every young boy is forced to have the same bowl-head haircut known as the “Yoshino-gari” hairstyle. Then one day, a drastic change occurs when a transfer student with bleached hair comes from Tokyo.
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At the beginning of the 20th century, a newspaper organizes an endurance horse race : 700 miles to run in a few days. 9 adventurers are competing, among them a woman, Miss Jones, a Mexican, an Englishman, a young cow-boy, an old one and two friends, Sam Clayton and Luke Matthews. All those individualists will learn to respect each other.
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Rosalie is amicably divorced, dividing her time between her mother’s house, with her siblings and small daughter, and César’s. He’s self made, a scrap iron king, outgoing, amiable, in love with her. Enter David, an artist and Rosalie’s flame before her marriage. In a quiet, brooding way, he seeks to reclaim Rosalie. César’s jealous outbursts and attempts at cunning backfire and send Rosalie into David’s arms. César keeps trying: he buys Rosalie’s childhood seaside vacation home as a gift, wins her back, then must ask David to join them so Rosalie will be happy. When Rosalie discovers César and David’s complicity, she again asserts her freedom, leaving the men alone together.
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French civilization in the desert. Saganne is of peasant stock, with courage and a forceful will. In 1911, he volunteers and is posted to the Sahara under the aristocratic Colonel Dubreuilh. He catches the eye of Madeline, the daughter of the regional administrator. In the desert, Saganne is a leader, with the respect of Arabs, including Amajan, an independent warrior. After resourceful campaigns, Saganne goes on a diplomatic mission to Paris, where he has an affair with a journalist. Back in Africa, he leads a gallant defense against Sultan Omar, is awarded the Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour, and marries Madeline. Then the Great War puts at risk his success and happiness.
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